Different Trails

BUS TOUR & MUSEUMS (Day 5 - part 1)

After a quick breakfast at Mr. Ed's, the hotel restaurant, we headed out into the extreme heat and humidy to catch a 2.5-hour city bus tour at 9 a.m.

Eggs, potatoes and cheesy grits

We arrived early but was unclear exactly where we were supposed to meet. Eventually we found other obvious tourists loitering about. There was no one inside the building we were supposed to check in at and no sign of a bus anywhere. Finally the driver showed up a few minutes late and got us all on the bus, but our guide still hadn't arrived. Within 10 minutes, however, all was well and we were on our way. We visited many places that most toursits don't see and heard countless interesting stories about local history.

Checking in for the bus ... Carolyn, our guide

Our tour took us from the French Quarter, through sections of the 9th Ward, up Esplanade Ave to the St. Louis Cemetery #3 (the red dot), into the City Park, then back via the Garden District. As we had already learned, the French Quarter is the highest part of town above sea level. The map shows clearly why: The crescent bend of the river right there is what built up the land.

Jackson Square ... The Jazz Museum

Formerly called Place d'Armes (or Plaza de Armas in Spanish), it was renamed Jackson Square in 1815.

The Jazz Museum once served as the old U.S. Mint and rests at the end of the historic French Quarter. Everything else at that time was either swamp or plantations.

We then headed into the Lower 9th Ward. People in New Orleans doesn't use directions such as north or south. Instead they'll say riverside vs. lakeside, or upriver vs. downriver (lower, refering to its location farther towards the mouth of the river). The 9th Ward was added as a voting district in 1852. It was hit extremely hard by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. There was lots of Caribbean history, bright colors and murals.

The houses in this eary had water levels from the hurricane up to their roofs. In some areas, the water remained for 1.5 months, since even after the storm the levies kept being breeched. Everything has been rebuilt, but now all the buildings sit higher off the ground. Many lots still remain empty.

Shotgun houses allow for excellent windflow in this hot climate. The name probably comes from the West African Yoruba word togun, meaning house or gathering place.

Musicians' Village Park (in the upper Ninth Ward) .... Kermit's Treme Mother-in-Law Lounge live music venue

We then entered into the Treme, the oldest African community in the US, founded in 1783. This is the area where we visited Armstrong Park and Congo Square. Unlike in other parts of the country (and world), slaves were treated differently here. The Catholics in New Orleans believed that a baptized slave had a soul. As such, they were seen as humans, not just property. This meant they had the right to work for themselves on Sundays in order to earn their freedom. Congo Square was where they could sell the goods that they made for money. The trick, however, was not to buy freedom for themselves but rather for the oldest living female in their family, for as soon as she became a free woman, all her lower generations automatically became free people as well.

Many of the super large Creole mansions were built in the 1850s, before the Civil War.

Edgar Degas house ... Mansion on Esplanade Ave

French impressionist painter Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas lived (and painted) here from 1872-73. His mother and grandmother were both born in New Orleans.

(left) John McDonogh High School opened in 1902.

We stopped briefly at the St. Louis Cemetery No. 3 and got to walk around. the cemetery began in 1848. It was expanded in the 1980s and now contains some 10,000 multiple-use tombs. These include 5,000 condo-like mausolea, 3,000 wall vaults, up to 2,000 individual family tombs and about 12 society tombs.

The French origianlly buried their dead in the ground along the river. Unfortunately due to the high water table, the bodies tended to end up floating down the river. So they moved their burials inland, but they quickly began to run out of space. So they switched to the Spanish-style tombs that could accommodate whole families.

With each burial, the front nameplate is removed and the brick wall behind it is broken down. Inside is simply a shelf above a dirt floor. The old pine coffin remains are tossed and any body remains are placed in a bag on the floor to decompose into the soil.